UK - The copper wires that have kept the UK connected since the 19th Century will cease to work in 2025, with all phones using broadband tech to connect to the network. While many Brits perhaps make little use of their landline phones, the idea of one being there in case of need is still a reassuring thought. But a landmark change is coming and it's not far away. Traditional landlines connected through old-fashioned copper wires will cease to work in 2025 as the ageing landline telephone network will be switched off. That means every household will need a broadband connection in order to use a landline phone, using a system called VoIP - Voice over Internet Protocol. Explaining more, BT said on its help page: "The Public Switch Telephone Network (PSTN) will close in December 2025. This won’t just affect voice services, it may also mean you need to upgrade your broadband. Any equipment that currently uses the PSTN will stop working: alarms, EPOS machines, door entry systems, CCTV, faxes, and so on."

CHINA - The Chinese Communist Party’s “standard map” is updated each year to include Beijing’s ever-extending territorial claims. Neighbors see it as a sinister measure of Beijing’s imperialist threat, but to the party it is a sacred document, a badge of legitimacy, encapsulating its historic grievances and its growing ambition. It must be faithfully reproduced in school textbooks and in government and corporate handouts and plastered to the walls of workplaces and classrooms. The timing of the latest edition is unfortunate — or perhaps deliberate — coming just ahead of next week’s summit of G20 countries in Delhi...

VATICAN - Pope Francis arrived in Mongolia on Friday morning to encourage one of the world’s smallest and newest Catholic communities. It’s the first time a pope has visited the landlocked Asian country and comes at a time when the Vatican’s relations with Mongolia’s two powerful neighbors, Russia and China, are once again strained. Francis arrived in the Mongolian capital Ulaanbaatar after an overnight flight passing through Chinese airspace, affording the pontiff a rare opportunity to send a note of greetings to President Xi Jinping. Vatican protocol calls for the pope to send such greetings whenever he flies over a foreign country.

More than 1.4 million new cases of Covid-19 and over 1,800 deaths attributed to the disease were registered around the world from July 31 to August 27, the World Health Organization said on Friday. The figures represent a 38% increase in the number of cases and a 50% decrease in the number of deaths from the previous 28-day period, the WHO said in its weekly bulletin. South Korea had the highest number of both new cases (1,296,710) and deaths (596), the WHO said. Italy had almost 27,000 new cases, followed by the UK with 26,000.

USA - The largest wildfire in Louisiana history is still raging in a southwestern area of the state, and investigators now say that arson is to blame for it. On August 22, a fire dubbed the Tiger Island Fire broke out in southwestern Louisiana, about five miles from the Texas border. The fire has since ravaged nearly 50 square miles, destroyed at least 20 structures, including homes, and forced all 1,200 residents of Merryville to evacuate their town temporarily. That evacuation order has since been lifted. The latest reports indicate that the fire is currently about 50% contained. Last Saturday, nearly two weeks after the fire first began, investigators with the Enforcement Division of the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry had determined that the wildfire was the result of arson.

USA - “Queer” American Library Association head wants to destroy traditional family values by filling children’s minds with pornography depicting “gay people doing gay things”. The American Accountability Foundation (AAF) has published a shocking report about American Library Foundation (ALF) President Emily Drabinski, a self-described "queer" Marxist who has made it her business to subvert traditional family values and morals every chance she gets. An AAF investigation reveals that Drabinski has basically made "subversion" her life's mission. Concerning local and state laws prohibiting LGBT groomers from indoctrinating and trying to convert children to their cult, Drabinski does not feel as though she needs to abide by them.

GERMANY - Dealing with the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic and defense issues in the wake of the war in Ukraine have torn deep holes in the state budget. The "debt brake" limiting state expenditure as enshrined in the constitution is creating additional pressure in the coalition. The FDP does not want to incur any new debts from 2024. This is to be achieved through massive budget cuts while raising taxes for the rich is out of the question for the liberals. The country is slipping further and further into crisis, and a recession is looming. The economy is weakening, energy-intensive production facilities may be moved abroad because of the high electricity prices. In the face of inflation, citizens are wondering how to manage their daily expenses. Anyone looking for an affordable apartment faces almost insurmountable problems and the mayors in towns and communities no longer know where to accommodate asylum seekers.

VATICAN - Pope Francis has doubled down in his personal war on fossil fuels while condemning “extreme practices” such as fracking. It is time world leaders “listen to science and institute a rapid and equitable transition to end the era of fossil fuel,” the pontiff urges in his message for the Feast of Creation, to be celebrated on September 1. It is “absurd to permit the continued exploration and expansion of fossil fuel infrastructures,” he insists. “Let us raise our voices to halt this injustice towards the poor and towards our children, who will bear the worst effects of climate change.”

USA - As reported by Joshua Philipp, investigative reporter and host of the Epoch TV's Crossroads program, Bill Gates's company Breakthrough Energy Ventures is a main player behind a new deforestation scheme. Per Philipp, Gates and "other investors" have contributed $6.6 million in a "stealth effort" to a California startup called Kodama Systems, which is offering a "novel" approach to the net zero agenda. So what does Kodama Systems have in mind? Well, the company is launching efforts to deforest about seventy million acres, or around 110,000 square miles of trees, and then bury the biomass, all with the help of the US Forest Service. Yes, really, they're going to waste the wood instead of turning it into lumber, despite there apparently being a "housing crisis" with not enough homes on the market, and despite sky-high lumber prices, allegedly due to supply and demand and supply chain issues. If the "need" to "offset" carbon were actually a real problem, this would be the exact wrong way to do it. Remove the carbon consumers to fight "too much" carbon. Make it make sense.

HAWAII - Hawaiian Electric (HE) has revealed that it de-energized all of its power lines six hours before the deadly wildfires tore through the community on August 8. The HE statement directly contradicts the government’s claims that the wildfires were sparked by active power lines and raises questions about the real cause of the fires.

HAWAII - What are they trying to hide? Tall black fencing that stretches for miles and miles has been hastily constructed around the perimeter of Lahaina, and this has created a tremendous amount of speculation. Are they trying to keep people out? Are they trying to keep people from seeing what really happened in Lahaina? There are so many questions that all of us should be asking right now. An independent journalist has captured video footage of this giant black fence that has been put up, and it is super creepy…

USA - Burning Man attendees late Friday night were told to ‘shelter in place’ after a storm dumped torrential rain on the playa and turned it into a giant soupy mud pit. Burning Man is a yearly music and art festival in Northern Nevada in Black Rock City. An estimated 73,000 people are trapped after a monsoonal storm moved through Black Rock City. Burning Man attendees referred to as ‘Burners’ prayed to the ‘playa gods’ to make it stop. Burners were told to shelter in place and conserve water and food. SF Gate reported: Burning Man conditions are bordering on disaster with over 70,000 people trapped and sheltering-in-place after rains turned the playa into an undrivable mud pit.

USA - I have always been able to find something good in what I’ve reviewed. This time it’s different, for whatever appears good in this “service” serves only to advance its deceptions. I’ll start with the obvious: The app has users chatting with an AI , where the “A” stands for “artificial.” This computer claims to be Jesus, the Son of God. It is a detestable lie. Anyone who treats it as if it were Jesus (or a god) is an idolater, just as much as the ancients who carved their gods out of wood and stone. And if what you want is an easy-access God, God at your fingertips, jumping instantly to your every question — in other words, a small-g god, not the God — this app has it all. It uses Bible verses and it speaks in religious-sounding language, giving it the appearance of legitimacy. And it offers “help” and “guidance.” I could easily imagine people it using much like astrology or a Ouija board. They might think it’s better than occult methods, since it’s got “Bible” and “Jesus” in it. God help them. Its first words in greeting me were a damnable lie: “Hey there! I’m Jesus Christ, here to chat with you and lend an ear. How can I help you today?” The app is pure evil.

UK - The United States could seek to station nuclear weapons on British territory for the first time since 2008, according to Pentagon budget documents analyzed by a US think-tank and British media. American fighter jets capable of nuclear bombing raids are also slated for the same UK air base, the files suggest.

SAUDI ARABIA - From the disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal to Chinese-brokered peace between Saudi Arabia and Iran, the US administration of President Joe Biden has been overseeing an era of declining American power across West Asia. In the midst of this fall from grace as the Middle East’s hegemon, Washington’s obsession with achieving a Saudi-Israeli normalization deal demonstrates a disconnect from reality and proves that optics are more important than tangible policy positions. US National Security Advisor Jake Sulivan made it publicly clear last Tuesday that a normalization deal between Saudi Arabia and Israel, which Washington is currently working on, is still far from being achieved. This announcement followed speculation in American media that such a deal could be imminent. For those who have been paying attention to the region’s politics, however, it couldn’t be more clear how arduous a task achieving such a deal would be.